Brazy

About

Brazy is a slang word for "crazy," with the letter "C" replaced with "B." The word has been associated with the Bloods gang, to both avoid using the letter "C" associated with the Crips and to reinforce one's gang affiliation, and has often appeared in rap lyrics starting in 2014. In June 2022, the word saw an increase in use online after being used in a viral tweet.

Origin

The word "brazy" was originally used by affiliates of the Los Angeles Bloods street gang as a substitute for the word "crazy." While the exact first use online is unknown, an early definition was made on July 30th, 2003, by Urban Dictionary^[1] user malice mam, who defined it as "blood gang word for crazy," with the definition gaining over 1,200 thumbs up vs. 250 thumbs down in 19 years (shown below, left).

In the following decades, similar definitions for the word were added, with many not mentioning its association with the street gang. For example, on February 27th, 2018, Urban Dictionary user Mastro dong defined it as "absolutely fucking crazy," with the definition gaining over 190 thumbs up and 30 thumbs down. On May 20th, 2018, user Yeowassup provided another definition (shown below, right).

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Spread

While the earliest usage of the word in popular music is currently unknown, "brazy" has been frequently appearing in rap songs since 2014. For example, in February 2014, YG released his song "Who Do You Love," which ended with a skit containing the word "brazy."^[2] In October 2014, Logic released his album Under Pressure with the song "Growing Pains III" containing the slang word in the opening skit (music audio shown below, left).^[3] In the same month, Nicki Minaj released^[4] her single "Only" featuring Lil Wayne, which contained the word in the lyrics (music video shown below, right).

This shit is crazy, my nigga
I mean brazy, my nigga

In the following years, the slang word was used by Future,^[5] Ty Dolla $ign,^[6] Kendrick Lamar,^[7] Young Thug,^[8] Migos,^[9] Post Malone^[10] and other rappers. On June 14th, 2016, YG released^[11] his second studio album Still Brazy, with the search interest for the word spiking that month.

On May 10th, 2022, Fredo Bang and YNW Melly released the song "Brazy," which accumulated over 3 million views on YouTube^[12] and 2.7 million streams on Spotify in one month (music video shown below).

On June 12th, 2022, Twitter^[13] user @KameronBennett posted a video of TikTok user @jcreekcloggers dancing, set to “Country S***” by Big K.R.I.T., commenting, "Nah he goin too Brazy 😭😭" (tweet shown below). The video received over 1.9 million views, 12,900 retweets and 93,400 likes in four days, which assisted the popularization of the slang word.

Nah he goin too Brazy 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/cWORgkcCO6

— DJ Kam Bennett (@KameronBennett) June 13, 2022

In the following days, the word saw a notable increase in use on social media into mid-2022.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References